Philippine Call Center: Stereotypes about Agents in this Major Asian Call Center Hub

The call center industry in the Philippines is considered one of the major employment generators for Filipinos. According to a recent survey, almost 900,000 Filipinos are relying on the industry for their bread and butter. It is actually safe to say that almost every citizen in the country knows someone working in the industry of call center Philippines.

This call center fad has been part of the popular culture of the new millennium so it is inevitable for people working in this Asian call center to form a sub-culture of some sort. In fact, society has already stereotyped those who are working as call center agents in both positive and negative light.



call center in the Philippines

Call center agents have health problems.
Working in this Asian call center does not only require proficient communication skills, but also the physical health to endure the demands of work. Unlike the usual reporting schedule implemented in other offices, most companies in the call center industry would require agents to do night shifts since most of their clients are from the opposite part of the world. The time difference would not allow their agents to work at the usual 9-5 pace. This is one of the reasons why there are many call center agents suffering from various health problems like insomnia, sedentary diseases, and such. On the other hand, this might not apply to all call center agents. There are some BPO companies that make sure that their employees are given the proper treatment to prevent stress that could eventually lead to such diseases.

They have been rejected by other industries so they decided to work as a call center agent.
This is just one of the negative connotations about call center agents and this is not without any reason. It is said that some companies in the call center industry do not look into an applicant’s academic achievement or attainment that much. As long as you can communicate yourself well using the English language and seem trainable to adopt an American accent, you have a sure trump card to this industry. In fact, even if you have not obtained a college diploma, you can qualify as an agent in call center Philippines. Because of the minimum requirement in terms of skills and work experience, many think that agents are those people who have either been fired from their previous profession for incompetence or those who do not have stellar skills to go head-to-head with others in their competitive industry. But then, these assumption are not entirely true. There are those who are working in Philippine call centers by choice and not because they have nowhere else to go. In fact, many agents have earned their degrees and obtained brilliant University grades. They are also very hard-working and flexible as seen in the feedbacks of many offshore clients. Good qualities that this premier Asian call center workforce have contribute to the sudden rise in interest of foreign clients opting to offshore outbound and inbound call center services from the Philippines.

Can Obama Stop Contact Center Offshore Outsourcing?

Call center Asia industries have been shocked when Obama first said that he is against outsourcing. But are call center jobs Asia really have a cause for worry?

BPO including contact center offshore outsourcing jobs everywhere is reported to suffer because of the looming global economic struggle. The new U.S. administrations plan is one that a lot of people are nervous about. President Barack Obama’s strong position on this crisis is well known. Obama wants all the outsourced jobs back into the country to counter the growing joblessness that was created by the recession.

philippine call center



There is nothing wrong with such a sentiment. It does sound like a good plan in fact to bring these outsourced jobs back into a country that desperately needs all the jobs that it needs. But really, this isn’t realistic in the schematic of Globalization.

Corporations, by law, are required to take care of its stockholders’ interest even before its stakeholder, employees, and externalities (externalities are everyone affected by the corporation indirectly). And another thing, corporations are by law, recognized as persons. Thus as a person, a corporation have the right to own, to sue people, etc. Basically a corporation has almost all the rights of a free person. How does this help contact center offshore outsourcing companies?

This means that they have to right to do as they please and they can purchase the services of contact center offshore outsourcing companies as is part of their rights. The government cannot force them to do anything. And their primary goal is top make profit. As long as contact center offshore outsourcing companies in the third world exist to provide cheaper services to corporations, corporations will keep taking advantage of such cheap services.

The president will not have enough power, even if it is just bargaining power, to coerce all American corporations to not outsource. This will stop profit, and corporations will not let that happen.